Steve Martini - The Rule of Nine

“It’s nothing to do with lawyer-client privilege. There’s nothing to talk about because I never had any dealings with your son.”

Snyder looks perplexed, casing me with his eyes. “Then why would they give me your name?”

“Who?”

“I’d rather not say.”

“Then there’s nothing more I can tell you.”

It’s going to be a long, silent lunch. He thinks about it for a few seconds. “All right. I was interviewed a week ago by the FBI. They asked me if I knew whether my son had recently hired a lawyer. They mentioned you by name,” he says. “So if you never met Jimmie, why would they give me your name?”

“What exactly did they tell you?” I ask.

“Just what I said.”

“They gave you my name. They didn’t say anything more? No other details?”

Snyder shakes his head. “No.”

“What they didn’t tell you is that at the scene the police found my business card in your son’s wallet. That’s how the FBI had my name.”

“But you say you never met Jimmie?”

“That’s right.”

“Then how did my son get your card?”

“I don’t know. The FBI asked me the same question and I told them the same thing. I didn’t have a clue.”

Snyder thinks about this for a moment. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense. I mean, it’s possible somebody else gave Jimmie your card, one of his friends, on a referral. Maybe he was going to call you and never got around to it. You do criminal work?”

“Right.”

“Do you ever handle drug cases?”

“No.”

“That’s what I thought. I knew Jimmie never did drugs.” He seems at least relieved by this thought. “Still, he was in Washington. You’re in California. Regardless of what the problem is, I’d get somebody local. Wouldn’t you?”

I nod. What can I say without telling him everything?

Harry has a pained expression. We could just sit here and allow Snyder to wander down this posy path, coming to all the wrong conclusions, wondering if his kid was a closet addict and maybe got a flawed legal referral from some drugged-out junkie.

“The cops are horsing you around,” says Harry. “Sending you here to talk to Paul with only a fraction of the facts.”

“The FBI didn’t send me,” says Snyder.

“Oh, yes, they did.” Harry’s looking at me from under arched eyebrows, shirtsleeves rolled up, his forearms sprawled on the table. “And I think you deserve all the answers.” Harry says it to Snyder, but he’s still looking at me.

“Okay, so you think we should tell him?”

“Hell, yes. If it was anybody else, I’d say no,” says Harry. “But given the circumstances…”

“Tell me what?” says Snyder.

“There’s a tad more to the story,” says Harry.

“Do we have your word that you’ll keep what we’re about to tell you in confidence?” I ask Snyder.

“Sure.” Or at least until he can get outside, whip out his cell phone, and call the FBI to kick the crap out of them, demanding whatever they have on the man Thorpe called the Mexicutioner.

“When the police found my business card in your son’s wallet they also found some other forensic evidence. Based on that, there’s reason to believe that your son may not have been the one who put my business card in his wallet.”

“Explain,” says Snyder.

Plates arrive juggled up the waitress’s arm. Over lunch I tell Snyder about the thumbprint that the cops found on the back of my business card, the fact that the print was somewhat obvious. I tell him that, according to the police, this unidentified print matched a second unidentified print found at the scene of another murder in Southern California committed several months before his son was killed. I’m careful not to give him Afundi’s name or any of the details in the other murder. With Joselyn tuned in, it would probably take her a nanosecond to connect this earlier murder to the shoot-out in Coronado. This would only ignite her candle all over again.

Snyder asks whether any arrests were made in the earlier case or whether the police have any suspects.

“Arrests, no. Not that I know of. But they may have a lead. Call it a rumor.”

I tell him about the tidbit from Thorpe, that the Southern California murder may have been the work of someone called the Mexicutioner, aka Liquida.

“According to the FBI, the narco buzz out of Mexico is that this man is connected to the Tijuana drug cartel.”

With the mention of drugs, Snyder lifts his eyes from his plate, snaps a quick look at me, and grabs a notepad from the leather portfolio at his elbow.

“What did you say his name was? Liquida? How do you spell that?”

I give him my best guess.

“He deals in drugs?” says Snyder.

“I don’t know. It’s only a name,” I tell him. “I know nothing about him other than what the authorities told me, which was very little. It’s possible I may have seen him one time, just a fleeting glimpse, but I can’t even be sure of that.”

“When was this?” says Snyder.

“About a year ago, down in Costa Rica. We were working a case. It was late at night, dark, and as I say it was just a quick glimpse. This guy had a swarthy, pockmarked face, looked like acne, and a set of evil eyes you could never forget. Of course that’s assuming it was even him.”

“Why didn’t the FBI tell me about Liquida?” says Snyder.

“I don’t know. Probably for the same reason they didn’t tell you about my business card. It’s part of their continuing investigation.”

“So why did they tell you?” he says.

“I don’t know.”

Harry looks at me. I cut him off with a glance. I don’t want to tell Snyder about the warning from Thorpe and the fear that Liquida may be playing out a vendetta against Harry, Herman, and me. If I go there, Snyder will want to know the rest, like pulling a thread on a sweater. How was it that we ended up on the death list of a man we don’t even know? Pretty soon we’ll be sitting here naked in front of Joselyn and her friends in the media trying to explain Liquida’s part in the events leading up to the attack at the naval base, the details of which I don’t fully understand myself.

“Go on,” says Snyder.

“There’s not much more to say. The FBI was unable to match the two thumbprints, the one on my card or the one at the earlier crime scene, to any known person in their database.”

“But,” says Joselyn, “if the information out of Mexico is accurate, that this man Liquida is responsible for the murder in Southern California, the FBI must be operating on the assumption that it must be his print that they found at that scene. Correct?”

“I assume so.”

“Hmm…” She goes back to nibbling at her salad.

“Let me get this straight,” says Snyder. “They don’t have any background on this guy Liquida?”

“If they do, they didn’t share it with me,” I tell him.

“Who was the victim in the Southern California case?” says Snyder. “And what city was it? I’d like to look at some of the press reports, and maybe talk to the local police.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have that information.” I wink at Harry, but he’s looking down, taking a bite out of his sandwich when I do it.

He wipes his mouth with a napkin. “Yes, we do…”

“No, Harry. That information was wrong. I checked with Thorpe. They had the wrong name. It was a different victim. When he found the right information, he refused to give me the name.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me, I checked.”

Joselyn is listening to the words, smiling as she looks at me, deciphering the facial language of lies.

“You say so.” Harry shakes his head and goes back to his sandwich.

I don’t want Harry dropping Afundi’s name in front of her. I can’t be sure how much she knows from her own sources regarding the attack at Coronado. She may already be aware of Afundi’s name.